The days of static billboards, posters and traditional advertising signage are numbered. Marketers can now reach their audience in new places. Digital signage will be a $2.6B business by 2010.

This new world of "remotely managed digital display, typically tied in with sales, marketing, and advertising" is available today (think Times Square), and will become more dominant in the next few years, says Carmel Group analyst Jimmy Schaeffler in his new book, Digital Signage.

According to Schaeffler, advertising is moving to digital signage because new ads, communication campaigns, and specials can be updated and targeted to specific audiences in real time. With sleek, flat-screen display hardware costing a tenth of what it did only a few years ago, the wait is over for functional, cost-effective digital signage deployment. Marketers should jump in! Just keep three tips in mind:

1. Plan projects and content around expected audience growth.
2. Test. Conduct measured testing to make sure the system and audience reaction are on target.
3. Expand. Map out the growing market, and move quickly.

Digital signage is a new medium that follows traditional direct marketing principles. "The key" says Graeme Spicer, Director of Retail Strategy at Canada's DW+Partners, "is to get the right content into the right place to the right person." Just make sure you understand its unique public-space and scalability issues when deploying it.

The Point: Techno advances are turning billboards and other signs live! It's time to consider a major jump into digital signage.

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